Ocean Of Opportunity With
-
- Rhode Island An Ocean of Opportunity Marine Technology, Mar 2013 #35
Rhode Island may be the smallest state in the union, but its vision of the future is as far reaching as the ocean lapping at its shores.
Taking a page from the University of Rhode Island (URI) motto, “Think Big, We do!,” the Rhode Island Economic Development Corp. (RIEDC) is working hard to position the state as “a premier hub for maritime activity for decades to come. “ The message? If it’s on the water, in the water, under the water or about the water – you’re going to find it here.
Sandwiched between much larger and seemingly more glamorous states with longer coastlines, Rhode Island nonetheless stands out by virtue of its “perfect marriage” between subsea technology and the marine environment.
That historic, symbiotic relationship is one reason many expect Rhode Island to be the first to “wet steel,” by fielding not one, but two offshore wind farms that will be based out of the upgraded facilities at Davisville port at Quonset. Another marine first is the innovative Ocean Special Area Management Plan (SAMP), a nationally lauded spatial grid mapping of the sea floor in and around Rhode Island, and then there’s the University of Rhode Island (URI)’s innovative research centers of excellence, and the country’s first doctorate and graduate degrees in ocean engineering.
Rhode Island is also home port to a sizeable naval presence, including the prestigious Naval Underwater Warfare Center (see p. 36), as well as to what one colleague calls “the greatest living explorer on the planet,” oceanography rock star, marine archeologist and former naval officer Dr. Bob Ballard.
Ocean State boosters keep coming back to the surrounding marine environment – starting with Narragansett Bay, a deep, natural harbor – and the communities that feed off it, and each other, including the U.S. Navy, which awarded $200 million in contracts to R.I businesses last year; URI’s Marine departments, a robust R&D community and more than 500 defense and marine-based business and agencies. “People are linked to the ocean here, one way or another,” said Prof. Dwight Coleman, director of URI’s Inner Space Lab. In a state where they joke that no commute is ever more than 20 minutes, it’s easy to understand how tightly knit the community has become over the years. Politicians at the state and federal level mix regularly with URI oceanography and engineering professors, who mix even more frequently with researchers from the NUWC and officials from a host of government regulatory, research and marine agencies. “We actually know them well, which as you can imagine, is helpful when you are trying to get things done,” said Coleman.
Many people jump back and forth between the different sectors of the heavily interlinked marine community throughout their careers. The result is both a rich pool of uniquely skilled, cross-disciplinary marine experts, and innumerable business opportunities, ranging from R&D partnerships to spinoffs out of Navy and University research projects, to new versions or applications of commercial technology. RI’s largest and most successful spinoff is ASA, a marine engineering services company, whose RI office alone had sales of $11 million before it was sold to RSB. Other spinoffs of note include Far Sounder, a maker of sonar and 3D imaging products, and SubChem Systems, Inc., which makes submersible chemical analyzers for water quality monitoring and underwater surveillance.
It’s those kinds of success stories coupled with the anticipated economic boom driven by offshore energy that has the state betting big that more marine business will be dropping anchor in Rhode Island.(As published in the March 2013 edition of Marine Technologies - www.seadiscovery.com)
-
)
March 2024 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 48Subsea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.blueprintsubsea.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .+44 (0) 1539 531536 5 . . . . . .Deep Ocean Engineering, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . .www.deepocean.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(408) 436-1102 33 . . . . .Detyens
-
)
March 2024 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 45to acquire Valeport a leader in the design and manufacture of underwater sensors and pro? l- ers. Valeport is one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of oceanographic and hydrographic instrumentation. The in- dependent family-owned business, which was established in 1969, designs and manufactures instrumentation
-
)
March 2024 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 44NEW TECH OCEANOLOGY INTERNATIONAL 2024 Image courtesy Metron/Cellula Teledyne Marine acquires Valeport: Matt Quartley, MD, Valeport and Ole Søe-Pedersen, VP & Image courtesy Teledyne Marine GM Teledyne Marine announce the deal in London. Pictured (L-R): Cellula Robotics, President, Eric Jackson, Metron
-
)
March 2024 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 432 Sub-Bottom Pro- Kongsberg Discovery debuts a new analysis tool developed ? ler, which is a new generation of GeoAcoustics sub-bottom with Cathx Ocean that it says ‘radically’ reduces the time and pro? ling technology, reaching into deeper waters for the ac- effort required to detect and classify
-
)
March 2024 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 42NEW TECH OCEANOLOGY INTERNATIONAL 2024 Image courtesy Greg Trauthwein Image courtesy BIRNS MacArtney launches the new ultra-compact ø12.7 mm SubConn Nano connector. Innovative connectivity built on 45 years of ? eld-proven and market-trusted design. Image courtesy MacArtney Birns celebrated its 70th
-
)
March 2024 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 41initial series of Quadroin prototypes, developed in col- laboration with Hereon for the Helmholtz Association’s MO- SES initiative, focuses on monitoring ocean eddies. These ve- hicles are equipped with sensors for collecting geo-referenced data on various physical water parameters, including tempera- ture
-
)
March 2024 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 40NEW TECH OCEANOLOGY INTERNATIONAL 2024 All photos courtesy MTR unless otherwise noted NEW TECH, PARTNERSHIPS LAUNCH IN LONDON With Oceanology International now one month in the rear-view mirror, MTR takes a look at some of the interesting technologies launched before, during and after the London event.
-
)
March 2024 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 39Photo courtesy Global Ocean Design Figure 7 A 35Ah AGM lead-acid battery is tested using the West Mountain Radio CBA to show the effect of simply ? lling the battery voids with mineral oil as a compensating ? uid. The CBA is programmed to cut-off at a voltage of 10.50v. The top line (red) shows the
-
)
March 2024 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 36capacity as they ap- their air weight; and 2) it is easier to exchange batteries on a proach 0°C depending on current drain. Lead acid batteries small ocean lander or AUV by unplugging the spent exterior can provide substantially higher capacities when discharged battery packs and plugging in the replacement
-
)
March 2024 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 34LANDER LAB #10 BATTERY PACKS, CHARGING, AND CAPACITY TESTING Photo Credit: Hanumant Singh / Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. By Kevin Hardy, Global Ocean Design LLC n ocean lander has many strengths including that produces the current is irreversible. Examples include ? exibility of deployment
-
)
March 2024 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 32system trials, TMC subsidiary exploration of the Clarion Clipperton NORI uplifted 3,000 tons of nodules from depths of four km and Zone of the Paci? c Ocean. transferred them to the hold of the Hidden Gem. All images this page courtesy of TMC Engineers attach ? oat sections to the ? exible jumper hose
-
)
March 2024 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 30with low-im- model different scenarios to reduce this impact, says Dr pact tracks, and to further limit sediment disturbance, it has a Greg Stone, Chief Ocean Scientist. ? nes rejection system. Research conducted by Nauru Ocean Resources, a subsid- This type of technology was ? rst tested successfully in
-
)
March 2024 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 27, particularly along the Paci? c Ring of Fire,” said Skett. USVs are also becom- ing more commonplace, pioneering new ways of understanding the ocean. Current submarine volcano research suggests profound discoveries to come, featuring new technology. “Projects like TESMaP are literally rewriting
-
)
March 2024 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 26FEATURE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTRUMENTATION & SENSORS Kevin Mackay, TESMaP voyage leader and Center head of the South and West Paci? c Regional Centre of Seabed 2030. Kevin in the seismic lab at Greta Point looking at the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano 3D map completed with data from the TESMaP voyage
-
)
March 2024 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 25, providing a new ment and recovery both in Tonga and the ter volcanoes. “We can use hydrophones baseline for monitoring future recovery. wider Paci? c Ocean. Mackay, who spe- to detect submarine landslides as well “Preliminary water column data from cializes in sea? oor mapping techniques, as earthquakes
-
)
March 2024 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 23forests.” These for- ests are a hotspot of biodiversity and species richness. Underwater eruptions are also known to change the chemical nature of the ocean in the vicinity, creating localized disruptions to the oceanic food chain. DETECTING “Most volcanic activity in the world occurs on the sea? oor
-
)
March 2024 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 20??QVSHFWLRQ5HSDLU 0DLQWHQDQFH ?%DWWHU\7HFKQRORJ\ ?8QGHUZDWHU&RPPXQLFDWLRQV ?&DEOHV &RQQHFWRUV Event Distribution: MTR E-Magazine Edition: Oceanology International, /RQGRQ8. Event Distribution: Subsea Expo Oceanographic 2?VKRUH7HFKQRORJ\&RQIHUHQFH27& $EHUGHHQ8. +RXVWRQ7;86$ Floating Wind
-
)
March 2024 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 15changes in water density, strong currents, and storm condi- in Systems Engineering and Project tions – such as the Gulf of Mexico or the Indian Ocean – the Management from Cornell University. Sentinel’s large buoyancy engine and optional thruster capa- bility will keep the glider on track. It is
-
)
March 2024 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 14and its thrusters give it the ability to stay standard Slocum Glider, and to physically accommodate up to on track in strong currents or other dif? cult ocean condi- 8 different sensor or hardware integrations. tions,” said Quinn. “The size of the Sentinel gives it the energy capacity to in- The Slocum Sentinel
-
)
March 2024 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 13volu- emerging technology to one of the most the need to operate in more diverse metric ef? ciency and is 8 feet in length. widely used tools for oceanographic water conditions. The Slocum Sentinel This expanded size allows the Sentinel monitoring. In this time, the glider user community has also
-
)
March 2024 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 6MTR Editorial Advisors Gallaudet Hardy The Honorable Tim Gallaudet, Kevin Hardy is President PhD, Rear Admiral, U.S. of Global Ocean Design, Navy (ret) is the CEO of creating components and Ocean STL Consulting and subsystems for unmanned host of The American Blue vehicles, following a career
-
)
March 2024 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 2Laursen B 34 Lander Lab We Need More Power Stored electrical power in batteries permit the untethered operation of sea? oor instrumentation on ocean landers, among other things. By Kevin Hardy 40 Oi ‘24 ‘That’s a Wrap’ From new product debuts -- cables and connectors, vehicles, sub bottom
-
)
March 2024 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 1monitoring > Mammals detection by A.I. > Up to 4 wideband hydrophones > Bandwidth from 3 Hz to 625 kHz > (EXEXVERWQMWWMSR+;M?9,*-VVMHMYQ rtsys.eu Preserve oceans MTR #3 (1-17).indd 1 4/4/2024 8:47:57 A
-
)
April 2024 - Maritime Reporter and Engineering News page: 28salvage ships; two submarine tenders; and the Sixth Fleet ? agship, USS Mount Whit- ney, that has a combined civil service and military crew. Our two ocean going tugs are going to be part of a 10-ship class. We have a special warfare support ship; two high-speed transports; and the high-speed expeditionary